Scaffolding demand to soar

MKRS Group (M) Sdn Bhd group chief executive officer Datuk Dr Saravanan Karrupayah, the scaffolding business was currently valued at about RM40 million per annum and this was expected to grow in the years to come.

SCAFFOLDING, a temporary structure that supports work crew and materials to aid in the construction, maintenance and repair of buildings such as office and residential towers, hotels and shopping malls, among others, will be more in demand this year.

The construction industry is anticipated to grow by eight per cent this year, underpinned by several mega infrastructure and real estate projects, raising the sector’s overall value to RM170 billion.

Last year, the industry grew by 7.4 per cent with a total value of RM166.4 billion.

The big real estate projects that would contribute to the increase in construction activities include Bandar Malaysia, Tun Razak Exchange, Forest City, and Cyberjaya City Centre.

Infrastructure developments would be projects like the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (Rapid) in Pengerang, Johor, the Light Rail Transit (LRT) 3 from Bandar Utama to Johan Setia in Klang, the West Coast Expressway, the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit Line 2, the East Coast Rail Line from Port Klang to Tumpat, Kelantan, and the Pan Borneo Highway in Sabah and Sarawak.

Scaffoldings are used during construction to prevent the equipment from falling or to act as weather protection for workers.

According to MKRS Group (M) Sdn Bhd group chief executive officer Datuk Dr Saravanan Karrupayah, the scaffolding business was currently valued at about RM40 million per annum and this was expected to grow in the years to come.

MKRS is among the few Malaysian companies that provide scaffolding materials for all types of buildings.

The company runs a scaffolding training institute to keep high rise sites and personnel safe and secure from beginning to the end of the construction period.

“We found that accident rates at construction sites were increasing every year, so we set up the training institute to improve industrial standards,” he told NST Property.